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Wide receiver John Chiles couldn’t save the Argonauts’ season last fall, but he did help rescue a crash victim just days after.

It was Nov. 17 when the Argos reached the end of the line with a 36-24 loss to Hamilton in the CFL East final. Chiles didn’t have a great game — two catches, 21 yards.

Afterward, the former Texas Longhorns star returned to his home in Dallas for American Thanksgiving. While driving with his father to a family dinner early in the afternoon on Nov. 28, they spotted an overturned car off the freeway.

At first, the 25-year-old Chiles thought the car might have been abandoned, But after pulling over near the vehicle, he looked in his rearview mirror and saw a woman moving inside, hysterical and screaming.

As he phoned for help, Chiles ran to the vehicle. His 49-year-old father, John Sr., recalled that gasoline started leaking, sparking fears the car would catch fire.

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They considered the options. If Chiles kicked in the side or front window, the glass could injure the woman. His dad then noticed the back hatch was open.

Chiles moved to the rear of the vehicle, opened the hatch and squeezed his six-foot-one, 209-pound frame through to the driver’s seat. The woman, still in her seatbelt, was bleeding from some small cuts but otherwise seemed okay. He unfastened the seatbelt and helped her crawl out of the damaged vehicle.

“She was screaming because she was in shock,” Chiles said, “but she seemed okay. She was moving. I don’t think she broke any bones. I was amazed she didn’t break her neck.”

Chiles’ voice was so calm, he recalls, that the worker who took his phone call didn’t believe there was an emergency at first.

“I tend to stay calm in pressure situations,” Chiles said. “I was talking to the dispatcher and I don’t think she thought I was telling the truth because of how calm I was. I was giving her directions as if we were going to a park or something.”

Chiles believes he picked up that trait as a quarterback (he played seven games at QB for the Longhorns in 2007) before converting to receiver.

“I always had to be in control and be calm, and I was always taught that from a young age,” he said. “I’ve always had to make quick decisions.”

Chiles didn’t get a good citizenship citation for his heroic effort — nor the name of the woman, believed to be in her 30s. She was still in shock as she was taken to hospital. He says he didn’t need any recognition, adding that God put him there to help the woman.

His father, a pastor, recalled being in a similar situation a few years earlier. He said he was driving along a south Dallas highway when a gasoline tanker crashed and exploded on a notorious curve. Chiles Sr. and another man pulled the driver to safety after he stumbled out of the truck seconds before it exploded.

Like his son, Chiles Sr. said “the good Lord” put him in position to save that man.

Chiles, signed and released by the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Rams before the Argos acquired him last May, credits his calm approach under pressure for a breakout rookie season in 2013.

He beat the odds just by making the team, forking out $100 for a tryout as a walk-on at the Argos’ mini-camp. Blessed with blazing speed (4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash), Chiles became one of the Boatmen’s top receivers with 44 catches for 725 yards, including eight touchdowns, despite missing seven regular-season games with injuries.

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